Grimm Nightmares
by VioletDragonian
Summary: When an accident on the battlefield causes Ruby to be stung by a Death Stalker, she falls comatose and finds herself in a seemingly inescapable nightmare realm. Now, she has to find her way out with the help of the one person she'd least expect, avoid the monsters that look like her friends, and make sure no one else dies in the process. (contains Ruby/Roman friendship)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer/AN: This story contains graphic horror, blood, and some gore. I don't own Rwby or its characters, or the indie horror game this story's setting is based off of, Dungeon Nightmares. All rights go to the respective owners, I just wrote the story.**

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><p>"Honestly, what <em>are<em> you doing?"

The cute little rabbit's ears perked up at the sudden voice, and it quickly dashed away from the cloaked scythe wielder in panic as her pale teammate stepped into the clearing, a scowl on her face.

"Aww, you scared him away, Weiss." Ruby looked off into the forest after the fuzzy creature. "He was nibbling my finger."

"We're not here to get distracted by cute little fuzzy animals, you dolt!" Came Weiss's sharp reprimand.

"But... But... Cute bunny..." Ruby looked up at her from where she was sitting on her knees in the soft grass, puppy face in full effect. Weiss felt her face twitch in annoyance.

"That look may work on Yang, but it won't work on me! Get up!"

"Okay..." The younger girl mumbled, still attempting to pull off the pitiful look. Weiss ignored it.

"Come on, we're out here to kill Grimm, not play with bunnies." She snapped again, before continuing in a softer tone, "Think of it this way, if we don't kill the Grimm, those little bunnies will become their lunch."

There was a slight glint in Ruby's silver gaze as she stared up at her teammate. "You just want to beat the other teams."

"That too." Weiss agreed, holding out her hand. "Now can we please go find our other teammates?"

"Yeah." Ruby took the offered hand, and Weiss pulled her to her feet. Dusting herself off a little, she asked, "Do you know where they went?"

"I'm sure they went this way." Weiss turned to face south, and Ruby had a feeling that was just the first direction she thought of.

"You're going to get us lost again, aren't you?"

Ruby was sure the older girl made an offended sound, but if she did, it was drowned out by the much louder sound of multiple explosions going off. The team leader smirked and pointed in that direction while keeping her stare on Weiss. "Hey look, I found my sister."

"Oh, just shut up and come on." The white haired girl snapped, proceeding to drag Ruby into the forest toward the sound of Yang beating something senseless.

It only took a couple of minutes for them to come upon another clearing, and Weiss pulled Ruby behind a tree instead of walking out into the open, peering out at the current battle that was taking place. "Why are we-"

"Shh." Weiss hushed her, her tone quiet as she continued. "Look. How did they manage to attract _that_ many Grimm?! I bet there are a ton of Nevermore in the air, too."

"Weiss, Yang and Blake need us." Ruby pointed out, watching as her sister relentlessly punched an Ursa before jumping toward a Beowulf that was heading for Blake, who was on the ground. "I think Blake is hurt."

"It won't do them any good if we get caught up in the middle of it too, we need to think of a- Hey! Where are you going? RUBY ROSE GET BACK HERE!"

Ruby smirked, ignoring the older girl, before pulling Crescent Rose from its sheath on her belt and extending it into scythe form as she ran. She spun it around and fired a couple of rifle shots into the ground to launch herself into the air, and spun it again to slice the blade through the neck of another Ursa as she came down.

"Hey Blake, need some help?" She smirked, the heavy scythe resting on her shoulder for a moment as she turned to check on the immobile Faunus.

"Ruby, you need to get out of here. Yang got hit with something that's sent her berserker mode out of whack." Blake's amber eyes were wide with panic as she stared up at her team leader, silently urging the younger girl to leave before things got out of hand.

"She's my sister Blake, I'm sure it'll be okay. I don't want her to get hurt trying to fight all of these guys on her own." Ruby gestured to the Grimm heading for them. "Oh, looks like I can't talk anymore, bye!"

She was gone in a poof of rose petals, appearing further away to kill a pack of Beowulves. Blake stared after her with a worried expression, partially aware of the raging blond just a few yards away.

Ruby smirked to herself when she managed to defeat the entire pack in about thirty seconds, that was probably a new record for her. Actually, keeping score would be really useful if she ever had to remind Weiss that she was perfectly capable on the battlefield, maybe not in the classroom but she was great at fighting, which it seemed the heiress occasionally forgot. Speaking of her partner, she glanced back to see that Weiss had run over to join Blake, and the team leader found herself nodding in appreciation of the fact she seemed to be doing her best to take care of the Faunus' wounds.

The momentary distraction caused her to very nearly get hit by a barrage of Nevermore feathers, but she was somehow lucky enough for them to all land around her instead, and she glanced down for a split second to make sure her cloak wasn't caught this time.

Satisfied that she was still able to move freely, Ruby readjusted her grip on her beloved scythe and jumped out from behind the feathers. There was another Beowulf on the other side, and she easily sliced it in half and was about to head for the next one when a Death Stalker forced its way out of the forest nearby.

"Uh, guys, I might need some help with this one." She called, eying it warily as she remembered that it took the combined efforts of team JNPR to kill the last one. Also, this one was bigger.

"Ruby, you need to retreat. Blake can't even walk." She heard Weiss shout back, and she turned around to look at her partner. The heiress was standing with her hands on her hips, and Ruby couldn't help but think that what Weiss _really_ wanted to say was 'get back here or be in trouble for the rest of eternity'.

She was about to answer when she spotted Yang running toward her, and instead turned her attention to her sister. "Hey Yang, just in time! Think you can help me with this thing?" She asked, casually pointing a finger at the giant scorpion still approaching from behind her. The blond didn't answer, however, and Ruby narrowed her eyes in confusion as she continued running instead.

Now the team leader was starting to feel a little worried, remembering Blake's warning from earlier. But Yang wouldn't hurt her, would she? "Yang? Are you okay?" Something felt very bad about this situation, and with a possibly out of control berserker in front of her and a very dangerous monster behind her, she could understand why.

"Ruby! What are you doing? RUN!"

Her partner's shout did no good. The team leader was rooted in place, unable to do anything but stare into the fiery red eyes of her sister as she continued to approach, and still being vaguely aware of the scorpion behind her. "...Yang?"

That one, barely audible word was the last sound she made before she felt the impact of one of Yang's fearsome gauntlets. As she flew backwards, she had to admit that Yang packed a hell of a punch, and decided she had a newfound sense of respect for anyone she'd seen her sister beat senseless and still be able to run away.

And then she was impaled on the Death Stalker's stinger, barely aware of her team's horrified screams of her name as she felt her own blood run down her skin, before everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby slowly felt herself being dragged back into consciousness, and with a groan, she sat up and opened her eyes. She expected to see the ceiling of her room at Beacon, or at least the school's infirmary, but this was neither. She was in a dark, brick room that looked very similar to a cellar or dungeon of sorts. There were old, wooden doors on either side of her, and a shelf with some candles on it behind her.

She stood up carefully, having an uneasy feeling about this place, and stared toward the far wall that she couldn't see. She really, really hoped there wasn't anything there. Shaking her head slightly, which immediately earned her a splitting headache, she grabbed and lit a candle.

The far side of the room was luckily empty, though she wasn't sure what she expected to see instead. Making her way toward one of the doors, the one on her right, she wondered how she'd gotten here. The last thing she remembered was getting hit by Yang and then the Death Stalker, so she should be in Beacon's infirmary, right?

With a gasp, she momentarily forgot about the door and placed her free hand over her stomach instead, searching for that wound, the one that should be there. She remembered being impaled, remembered feeling the blood drip from it, but there was nothing there now. As far as she could feel, her torso was injury free, and her clothes were also in perfect condition, as well as clean.

_Am I dreaming?_

There was no way she wasn't injured, she remembered it happening. This _had_ to be a dream, there was no way she'd be in some random dungeon without injuries that she _knew_ she had, if this were reality. But this apparent dream seemed far too real, from the dusty, underground smell, to the eerie feeling that there was something else in here with her. The same feeling when there were Grimm nearby, the feeling that you weren't alone and there was danger. She'd had nightmares before, true, but she'd never had one in which she sat and debated whether or not said nightmare was real or not. The burning candle in her hand also disagreed with the thought of this being just a dream, since it chose that moment to burn her hand with melted wax.

She hissed in pain at the burn, but managed to not drop the candle. Something told her that dropping the candle would be a very, very bad idea. _Wait, isn't pain supposed to wake you up? That's why people do the 'pinch me in case I'm dreaming' thing, right?_

Finally, she shoved the old door open, with obvious effort. Which said a lot for how heavy the door was, considering the weapon she carried every minute of every day. _Oh god, I don't have Crescent Rose with me._ That thought alone made this entire situation that much scarier, and she shivered as she stared down the hall, which was obscured by both darkness and a heavy layer of fog or dust that was in the air.

_I really hope this is just a dream._


	3. Chapter 3

The young team leader also realized she didn't have her cloak, which didn't help her nerves at all. Being without her beloved scythe was one thing, being without her cloak was another, but being without both of them made her uncharacteristically skittish.

The eerie feeling that she wasn't alone only grew stronger as she walked down the dark hall, the candle in her hand doing little to light her way. Hot wax was still dripping down her fingers, but she barely noticed it as she strained her ears, trying to hear something that could maybe tell her what was lurking in the darkness and out of her sight. The dungeon appeared to be some sort of maze, judging by the many different rooms and halls branching off from the one she was in.

Pushing open another heavy, old door, she walked a little ways into the room behind it as she held the burning candle high to illuminate it as best she could. There were a few more shelves in this room, mostly containing random boxes and junk, but on one she could just see the light from her candle glinting off of a piece of red metal. Curious, she made her way over to the shelf and picked up the object. Once it was in her hand, she realized it was her rose symbol, and a quick look at her belt told her it was the one that was normally supposed to be there.

_Why is this in here?_ She kept her confused gaze on it for a few more seconds, before finally shrugging and putting it back in place on her belt, where it was supposed to be. Even though she hadn't realized it was missing before, she felt a little more complete with her symbol back.

Ruby turned around to leave the room, and this time she _did_ drop her candle. Well, would have, if it wasn't stuck to her hand. In one of the corners by the door stood her icy partner, still as a statue.

"Weiss?"

Her voice sounded much louder than she would have preferred, and she jumped as it echoed off the walls slightly. _I hope that doesn't attract something I don't want to run into._ Ignoring that thought for a moment, she crept closer to Weiss, feeling her hair start to stand on end as she did. Something told her that this was not her partner.

And she had to agree.

When she had moved close enough for the candle to illuminate the heiress properly, Ruby gasped and quickly covered her mouth with her free hand while her eyes widened in absolute horror. It looked exactly like Weiss, it could have even been an incredibly realistic statue, except for the eyes. She expected to see the icy blues that she knew so well, or at least closed ones, but this thing didn't have eyes at all. Just empty, black sockets, similar to a skeleton except for the blood dripping out like tears.

Ruby shuddered as she backed away, throwing the Weiss thing back into shadow. She stood still for a moment, telling herself over and over in her head that this was just a dream, and back in reality, Weiss was perfectly fine, not standing like a statue in a dungeon somewhere without eyes. That made her feel a little better, and she turned and started to walk out of the room, refusing to look at the thing in the corner.

Just as she reached the door, she had that feeling again. The feeling that she wasn't alone, that there was danger nearby, and with a prickling feeling, she turned back around to face the room.

The eyeless Weiss was standing directly in front of her, their faces only inches apart, and it had its fingers stretched out toward her like claws. It was completely still again, like a statue, as if it had never moved. All of these details became apparent to her in the split second that she stared at it, before screaming and dashing out of the room as fast as she could.

Normally, Ruby was brave. She took everything head on and never backed down from a fight, unless her team convinced her it was the better option. But here, she was without her scythe, without her team and friends, and was instead in an eerie dungeon alone with a creepy Weiss statue that only moved when she wasn't looking at it. Even that wouldn't be so hard to handle if the damn thing had eyes, but the empty, bleeding sockets freaked her out to no end, and her courage had completely deserted her the moment she saw them right in front of her face.

She ran down the hall recklessly for a few minutes, forgetting to try and be at least slightly cautious of how much noise she made. Though, after that scream, whatever else was down here probably already knew about her anyway. Finally she came to a stop and leaned against the wall, panting as she tried to regain her breath. Her candle had blown out in the mad dash away from the Weiss thing, and now the darkness around her felt even more foreboding than before.

There wasn't much of a candle left now, at least. It was barely more than a stub and would only have lasted a few more minutes anyway, so she didn't mind losing it so much, and carefully peeled it and the wax that had dripped over her fingers off of her hand, before dropping it to the floor.

Steeling herself against the fact that she had to continue wandering around in darkness without any sort of light at all, she slowly walked out into the next room. She could already tell it was a very large room, and wondered what may be hiding for her just out of sight in here.

However, a minute or two of searching around showed this room was actually empty, aside from some chairs or boxes here and there. Deciding to take advantage of the momentary safety to rest, she leaned against a wall again before sliding down it and onto the floor.

Ruby stared into the darkness for a few minutes, then down at the rose symbol on her belt for a few more. Eventually, her brows knitted together slightly in confusion as she remembered it was supposed to be silver. She hadn't realized it at first, but the one she usually wore was silver, whereas this one was red like Crescent Rose. _Must be because this is a dream. I mean, they're not always completely accurate to reality and we don't always realize it's different until we wake up, right?_ Then her expression darkened slightly as she thought about that thing that looked like Weiss. _This is one hell of a nightmare if I'm seeing stuff like that. Normally, the only times my nightmares are about Weiss is when I know she's going to yell at me for something. Actually, come to think of it, I've never had a nightmare like this before._

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sound of something metal scraping against stone, like a heavy blade being dragged on the ground. She'd only ever heard sounds like that in horror movies before, where the killer dragged their weapon against stone or concrete in order to scare people. And while she always thought it was kind of pointless before, she had to admit that in a real situation, it was terrifying.

The sound came closer as whoever was dragging the weapon came into the room, making Ruby cautiously move behind a stack of boxes in case they could see in the dark. She peered over the edge of her cover as the sound started to pass right by, trying to get a glimpse of what it was, though all she could see was a vague shape of something large and red being dragged behind a dark figure with long hair.

And then the room was empty again, and Ruby made it a point to not go down the hall where the sound had faded off in. Instead, she forced herself to her feet and went down the hall that the figure had originally come from, since that was the only place she for sure wouldn't encounter it for awhile.

Almost immediately, there was a door on the left side of the hall, and she chose to investigate the room behind it. When she managed to force the old door open, the first thing she noticed was how light it was inside. The light was coming from a bunch of wall torches, making it the only room so far that was actually lit up, and in the center of the room was a ladder leading up to the next level of the dungeon.

Ruby took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare herself for what she may face next, and climbed the ladder.


	4. Chapter 4

She pulled herself up onto the floor of the next level, and the hole in the bricks where she had passed through vanished as soon as she turned away, blocking her from going back even if she wanted to. Ruby didn't notice, though, instead moving over to the shelves lined up against one wall and looking for anything useful.

There were a couple of candles, which she took gladly before lighting one, and while she was happy to have a source of light again, she almost wished she couldn't see the walls. Below, the walls had been just plain old stone, but up here, they were splattered with blood on almost every visible surface. With a shudder, she turned toward the door and attempted to ignore the red all around her.

The door swung open on its own, hitting the wall with a loud bang, and she jumped. There was no one on the other side, even though she was partially expecting to see another creepy Weiss standing there. Ruby shook her head to clear it, and cautiously stepped out into the hall, being reminded again of how little help the candle was. The dust in the air was thick enough that the flame's light just sort of bounced off, instead of lighting the way ahead, so she could hardly see more than two or three feet ahead of her. Still, having it there gave her some sense of contentment, even if it didn't realistically help much.

This hallway was shorter than most of the others, so she came upon the next room right away. There was a pillar in the middle of the floor, blocking her view of the far wall, which bothered her slightly. Other than that, it felt relatively safe, and she wandered further in to explore.

Of course, as soon as she passed through the doorway, she noticed a dark figure standing to her right. Spinning around to see what it was, she immediately regretted that decision as the candle light illuminated the figure and showed her that it was Blake. Or, it looked like Blake, but its eyes looked exactly like Weiss's had. For a moment she wondered what to do with it, since Weiss had moved as soon as she stopped looking at it, but she didn't get to think about it long before Blake made the decision for her. Ruby gasped and backed away as its head jerked back and the rest of its body seized, and then crumpled to the ground at her feet. She forced herself not to scream again when she noticed its hand had landed on her boot, as if it had been reaching for her, and she continued to back away instead.

_That is not Blake. It looks like Blake, but it's not her. This is a horrible nightmare that's just trying to scare me by showing me my friends like this, but they're fine. If I'm in the infirmary in reality, I bet Blake is sitting beside my bed reading a book right now, perfectly normal and safe._ Ruby reassured herself over and over as she slowly moved to the side of the room she hadn't been able to see before, ignoring the crumpled Blake.

There was a small, wooden chest on the floor here, and she knelt down to open it. Inside she found another candle, which made her realize that she hadn't even noticed the dripping wax from the one currently burning in her hand this time, despite how it had burned her skin before. Maybe this one was burning too and she just didn't feel it this time, though whether that was from her fear or something else she didn't know. She shoved the thoughts of the candle away as she noticed the light glinting off of something in the bottom of the chest, similarly to how her rose symbol had, and she reached in to pick it up as well.

When she held it under the light, it took her a moment to recognize the forest green gears symbol as Ozpin's. When she did realize what it was, Ruby blinked in confusion. _Why is his symbol here too? Is there some sort of pattern to this?_ Whatever the reason for them being here, she had a feeling their symbols were incredibly important right now, and placed Ozpin's gears next to her own rose on her belt.

She closed the chest and fought to stand up again, her legs protesting even though she hadn't done anything yet to make them tired. For a moment she wondered why, but that thought vanished as soon as she spotted a dark figure standing in the doorway beside the chest, and stood bolt upright before staring at the figure, startled. Now at eye level, her candle was close enough to just barely light up a green coat and black hair, and it reflected ever so slightly off of a set of sad, magenta eyes.

Though she felt no danger, Ruby continued to be frozen in place as she stared at Ren. He wasn't at all creepy like the other two had been, or threatening like Weiss, but there was something about him that was _wrong._

Then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone. She blinked for a moment and looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen, as if he had vanished into thin air. Glancing back at where he had been standing, she thought about him and the other things she'd seen down here. Weiss had been first, with its creepy eyes and what Ruby had felt was an intent to hurt her, then the dark figure with the scraping noise that she also had a feeling would want to hurt her if it saw her. Then Blake, which hadn't seemed dangerous but still creepy, and now Ren, who had just looked sad. _If I've seen those three, does that mean I'm going to see monsters that look like Yang and the rest of team JNPR too?_ She dreaded the thought of running into Yang, if the rest of her team had looked like they did, she absolutely did not want to know what this place would do to her sister.

She shook her head. _No, not my sister, the image OF my sister. These things aren't my real friends, they're just part of this nightmare. No matter how much they look like them, I can't let this place fool me into thinking the monsters are my friends._ Still, her mind drifted back to the look on Ren's face, the sad expression had seemed incredibly foreboding. No matter how she looked at it, seeing him gave her the feeling that she was about to see something very, very bad. Either that, or things in general were about to get a lot worse.

Finally, she walked through the doorway Ren had been standing in, continuing on into the next room.

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><p><strong>AN: I don't like putting these here because I feel it breaks the immersion, but just letting you guys know this story is already essentially FINISHED, so I can post updates whenever I like. Which also means the more you guys review, the faster I'll be convinced to update. So basically, if I get enough reviews, you could end up getting a chapter a day or more (especially since some of the chapters are so short) so if you want more, leave a review and I'll update faster!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews on the last chapter guys, I really appreciate them!**

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><p>The room behind Ren had been empty, and it only took a few minutes of surprisingly scare-free wandering to find the next ladder room, and now Ruby found herself on the third level of the dungeon. The walls were back to being plain stone again, though somehow that didn't give her any comfort.<p>

She was about to leave the small room she was in when she heard a faint growling sound coming from the other side of the door, but before she could decide whether to hide or not, the door slowly creaked open of its own accord. Peering out into the hallway, even with her limited range of sight she could still tell there was no one there.

As she quietly crept out of the room and down the hall, Ruby subconsciously reached down and patted the symbols on her belt to make sure she still had them. Reassured by the presence of the red rose and green gears, she focused on finding her way through the maze-like dungeon.

Nothing happened for a few minutes, and she was starting to feel less crushingly afraid, instead being lulled into a false sense of safety from the lack of monsters. That feeling instantly went away when she heard a grating noise at the end of the hall, the same one that the dark figure had made as it dragged some sort of blade around. And the sound was coming her way.

She quietly backed up in the opposite direction, looking for a room she could hide in until the monster passed at least, but keeping her eyes ahead in case the monster sped up. Realizing too late she should probably blow out her candle to keep from being seen, the monster spotted her and a loud, enraged scream came from it as it started chasing after her. There was a loud scratching noise like nails on a chalkboard as the blade was forced over the stone floor rougher than before, and the sound made Ruby's ears ring as she sprinted away.

The ringing in her ears got louder and more painful with each step, and suddenly she found herself collapsing with her sight fading to utter blackness. She hadn't fainted or passed out, since she could still think clearly, but she couldn't see or hear anything and her body wouldn't obey her commands to get up and move. Panic started to set in as she realized the monster would still be coming after her, even if she couldn't hear it anymore, and she was afraid of finding out what would happen if she died here.

Finally, her senses snapped back, similarly to being woken up abruptly, and she found herself staring at a pair of light brown boots covered in blood splatters. She slowly moved her gaze upward, chills going down her spine the more she saw of the figure. The brown clothes and long, messy blonde hair, albeit covered in blood, could belong to none other than her sister.

Yang's red eyes stared blankly ahead of her, and Ruby realized she must not have noticed her on the floor, thus why the girl was still alive and hadn't been stabbed by that noisy blade yet.

_Wait, Yang doesn't carry a bladed weapon. What is she dragging along that's making that sound?_ Ruby's stare trailed down to Yang's right hand and the red handle that was held tightly in it, then down to the black blade embedded in the ground. Ruby felt like she'd seen that scythe somewhere before, but in its uncared for and incredibly beaten up condition it was barely recognizable. Then it hit her.

_That's Crescent Rose._

Her eyes widened when she realized that was her beloved weapon, and the sorry state it was in made her want to scream. She managed to not do that, but the overall shock from seeing a blood covered Yang with an equally bloody and unrepaired Crescent Rose caused her to give a tiny squeak. Then the red eyes met hers and she heard the enraged scream again as Yang realized she was there.

Ruby rolled to the side and the scythe was swung overhead, stabbing into the floor where she'd been laying moments before. Taking the momentary opening as Yang fought to pull the scythe free, Ruby scrambled to her feet and dashed down the hall where Yang had come from.

The grating sound started up again as Yang took chase, and the noise made Ruby cringe as she imagined her poor scythe going through that kind of abuse. She had to escape, though, and forced thoughts of her weapon out of her mind as she ducked into another room and quietly closed the door behind her. She could hear Yang go past the door a minute later, continuing off down the hall, and she allowed herself to breathe properly again.

She shivered when she noticed the eyeless Blake staring at her from the other side of the room. As much as she didn't want to go near it, she realized she needed the candles on the shelf behind Blake since hers had gone out and rolled away when she fell. Taking a deep breath, she inched closer to the creepy thing, attempting to sneak around it. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she noticed its head turning to continue blindly watching her as she passed beside it.

Reaching the shelf, she snagged a candle and backed away as she lit it. Once the light illuminated Blake, it collapsed just like the previous one had. Its empty eyes continued to stare up at her, and she quickly turned and left the room, unable to look at it any longer.

Back out in the hallway, she was unsure of where to go. Yang had gone off in the direction Ruby hadn't explored yet, and she didn't see any other doors or halls back in the direction she'd come from. She couldn't hear the grating noise anymore, so that probably meant Yang had wandered far enough away that Ruby wouldn't run into her again for awhile, but she also now knew that Yang sometimes just stopped and made no noise. The bloodied berserker could very well be waiting at the end of the hall, and Ruby just didn't know it.

Deciding to take her chances, since she really had no other choice, she quietly crept down in the direction Yang had gone. She was careful to keep an eye ahead, ready to extinguish the candle at first sight of the blonde. The hallway was apparently monster-free, though, at least so far. She came to a four way intersection of halls, and chose to go left at random.

She immediately regretted that decision when she spotted a dark figure somewhere down the hall, slowly stumbling toward her. The fact it was lacking the grating noise as it moved meant this wasn't Yang, and some sort of morbid curiosity kept her from running away, instead staying still and watching it move into the range of her candle's light.

Ruby audibly gasped as she recognized Jaune, covered in cuts and gashes all over, his hair stained red on one side and blood dripping steadily from his mouth. Ruby stared at him in utter horror, finding his injured state even more disturbing than Yang's psychotic one. He continued stumbling toward her, eyes looking blank and dead and she couldn't help but take a step backward. The way he stared right through her as if she wasn't there bothered her, and she wasn't sure if he was hostile or not.

Before she could really decide what to do, whether run from him or try to speak to him, he collapsed. Legs buckling beneath him, he fell forward and Ruby braced herself to catch him, but nothing landed in her arms. She blinked in confusion when she realized he'd just vanished entirely.

She shivered as another thought entered her mind. _What if Yang is the one that did that to him? No, this is just a dream. There's no realistic explanation for why the things in here look like they do, they just look like that to scare me. Right?_ Ruby shook her head, refusing to let herself dwell on it any longer.


	6. Chapter 6

Ruby sighed, leaning against a wall. Her feet hurt from all the walking, and she'd run out of candles, having to search in the dark instead. It must have been a couple of hours since she saw the vanishing Jaune, yet she still hadn't found the symbol on this floor. She had come across the ladder room lit by torches, but the ladder seemed to just disappear into the stone ceiling, there was no opening to the next floor. The girl had stayed in that room and pondered for a while over what may have been needed to open the way to the next level up, eventually realizing that it must be the symbols that were needed to progress. With that thought in mind, she'd set off again in search of another symbol, but hadn't had any luck so far in finding it.

She shivered, realizing just how cold it was down here without her cloak or even a candle, and being exhausted on top of that didn't help. _How long has it been since I woke up here? Am I ever going to get out?_ Violently shaking her head, Ruby banished that thought of doubt from her mind. She _was_ going to get out, she had to.

She refused to die in her own dream.

The girl was just starting to force herself back to her aching feet when she saw a light approaching. Though she probably should have felt wary of anything she saw in here, the light didn't seem to bother her. _Maybe because all of the monsters have hidden in the shadows so far?_ Whatever the reason, she curiously watched the light as it got closer, and soon realized it was a candle like the ones she'd been using.

There was a young man holding the candle into the air, seeming to carefully survey his surroundings. He had slightly long brown hair and was wearing a green scarf, and it took her a moment to notice the blonde girl trailing behind him, the candlelight glinting off the girl's glasses. Ruby blinked in disbelief when she realized they were both wearing Beacon Academy uniforms.

_"Glynda, is he still following us?"_

_"No, I don't think so. The scraping faded off in another direction awhile back."_

_"Good. Maybe now we can find that symbol in peace."_

_"Doubtful."_

_"Don't be so pessimistic, I'm sure we'll get all of those symbols and make it out of here."_

The blonde didn't reply, instead continuing to follow her teammate in silence. Ruby just stared at them as they passed by her without seeing her, even though she was in plain sight, and was almost about to try speaking to them when she realized she could see the stone brick of the opposite wall right through their slightly transparent bodies.

Ruby chose to follow the two students as they wandered down the hall. They looked achingly familiar, and it felt like she should have recognized them on sight, but her memory felt fuzzy and she couldn't quite put her finger on where she knew them from. She was also curious as to why they looked like ghosts, but she had a strange feeling they weren't actually dead. Was this just a memory left behind by someone else who had ended up here?

_Wait._ Ruby stiffened for a moment, though didn't stop following the students. _Where did that thought come from? This should just be a nightmare in my own head, but now that I think about it… Is this more than a nightmare, and other people have gotten stuck in here too?_ Before she could entertain the thought further, the two students stopped in front of a door. The girl was just reaching for the door as the two of them vanished, plunging the hall back into darkness at the absence of their phantom candle.

Realizing she herself had not actually explored this room before, Ruby pushed open the door and stepped inside. She could feel it was a relatively small room, and noticed the vague shape of a shelf in one corner and a chest in another, and chose to examine the shelf first. Just barely able to make out the shape of a couple of white candles in the darkness, she breathed a sigh of relief at the fact she'd be able to see again for awhile.

After she had one lit, Ruby turned to the chest. Inside, there was a flat metal object glinting from the light, and she couldn't hold back a triumphant smirk as she picked up Penny's green sword symbol.

* * *

><p>There were a lot of things Ruby expected to see back at the ladder room, or even on the way to it. The sad Ren, statue Weiss, collapsing Blake… Especially the terrifying bloody Yang with Crescent Rose. Or maybe even to come back and find the room gone, or that the opening in the ceiling hadn't actually appeared like she'd expected.<p>

The last thing she expected to find there was Roman Torchwick.

She had pushed open the door to the ladder room, and audibly gasped when she noticed the figure standing inside. Her gasp alerted him to her presence, making him turn to look at her, and a split second later she recognized him.

"Torchwick?!"

"Red?!"

"Wait, wait… You're real, right? You're not one of them?"

"Yes, I'm definitely one of the monsters like the bloody blonde with the scythe trying to murder everything." Came his reply, heavy with sarcasm.

"Yep, you're the real Torchwick…" She hissed under her breath.

Remembering they were enemies back in the real world, she looked down to see if he had his cane with him, which he did not. _I guess it makes sense that neither of us would have our weapons here. At least it means he can't try to pull some sort of sneak attack with explosives. Which isn't very sneaky, come to think of it…_

They stared distrustfully at each other for a few tense minutes, before Roman finally sighed and spoke again. "Look, I don't like you. You're an annoying brat that keeps messing up all of my plans, but seeing as how we're the only two beings in here that aren't trying to kill every living thing in sight, we should probably work together to find a way out of here."

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "You expect me to trust you?"

"No. I don't trust you, you don't trust me, sounds fair. We _can_ be civil for a few hours, though, and get out of this damn place and back to the real world."

"So you're asking we call a truce." Ruby stated. "A very temporary truce."

"Exactly."

"… Fine."


	7. Chapter 7

On the next floor, Ruby double checked how much time she had left on her candle. It was to the point she had to hold her hand as a platform, so it would probably only last a few more minutes. Roman noticed her looking at it.

"Hey Red, doesn't that burn?"

"It did with the first candle, but I can't feel it now." She noticed, wondering if it was just because she wasn't registering pain in the dream. _Although,_ she thought, glancing over at her older companion, _there's no way this is just a normal dream if the real Torchwick is consciously here too._ "Hey Torchwick, how'd you end up here?"

"Cinder and the White Fang came up with the idea to experiment with Death Stalker venom." He answered, sounding annoyed. "And who gets volunteered against their will? ME, of course."

_Didn't I get stung by a Death Stalker?_ Ruby wracked her brain, trying to clearly remember the events that put her here. _I think so._

"Hello? Earth to Red?" Roman was waving a hand in front of her face. "Can we just hurry up and find a way out of here?"

"Okay, sheesh." She agreed, and pushed open the door of the small room they were in.

Outside was another foggy hallway that split into three different paths, and Ruby again chose at random, heading down the one to their right. Since Ruby had the candle, Roman had no choice but to follow where she went.

As they wandered down the hall, Ruby started hearing a faint scraping far off in the distance. _Yang is in here somewhere. Hopefully she doesn't find us before we can move on._ For the moment, the blonde was far enough away that they didn't need to worry about her, but they'd definitely need to stay quiet. If anything made any noise, Ruby was sure the enraged monster would come investigate.

Her candle chose just that moment to flicker out and die, plunging the hall into darkness.

"Oh, absolutely lovely. Now we get to wander around in the dark, too." Ruby raised an eyebrow at the grumbling man beside her.

"You should probably shut up before Yang hears you." She mentioned. "There were a couple of doors just ahead, how about we split up for a minute to search them? That way we can find anything useful and keep going before she finds her way over here."

Roman was probably about to protest, but Ruby didn't give him a chance to before she walked over to one of the doors and cautiously went inside without him. The older man gave a quiet sigh and went into the room on the opposite side of the one Ruby had vanished into.

Even in the darkness, Ruby could see a still figure in the corner, and eyed it warily. She could make out the basic outline, but she couldn't tell if it was Blake or Weiss, and she definitely did not want to run into another Weiss. Deciding it would be better to just try and keep an eye on it while searching for a candle, she inched over to a shelf near the door, reaching out and feeling around in the hopes of finding one.

Her hand coming up empty, she glanced down for a moment to check and make sure there really weren't any candles on the shelf. Seeing one, she grabbed and lit it quickly, light pouring into the small room as the flame came to life. Looking back up again, she found herself nearly touching noses with her pale, eyeless partner.

Giving a strained squeak, Ruby backed away from Weiss, staring at it and hoping it wouldn't move again. Of course, as soon as she blinked, it was standing closer again and reaching for her. That was enough to make the young girl dash out of the room and back into the hallway, firmly shutting the door behind her and briefly wondering if Weiss could open it.

"You okay there, Red? You look like you just saw a ghost." She looked up, recognizing Roman's face and relaxing slightly as she remembered she wasn't alone. "Ah, there was another monster in there, right?"

"Yeah. The one that moves when you don't look at it."

"Sounds creepy. We should leave before it comes out of there. Where do you think we should look next?" He asked, looking down the hall and at the other directions it branched off in here.

Noticing he had a candle lit as well, Ruby blew out the flame on her own. _No sense in using them both at once and wasting them._ For a moment, she wondered why Roman was being so agreeable, they were enemies after all. But before she could answer him or think about it longer, she noticed someone standing behind the ginger and froze.

"What is it?" Roman gave her a confused look, then slowly followed her stare over his shoulder to look at the panicked, slightly transparent Ren standing behind him. The older man immediately flinched at the unexpected visitor, sidestepping to stand beside Ruby instead.

Ruby stared at Ren, who stared straight back at her. Or through her, she couldn't really tell. He still looked extremely sad, dull eyes showing nothing but deep anguish, and just looking at him gave her the inexplicable urge to cry. After a few moments, though, she realized he had an urgent look on his face, as if he wanted them to do something, and quickly.

"Ren?" Ruby asked in a soft voice, trying to prompt an explanation for what he looked so jumpy about. Ren just blinked, and pointed down the hall in the direction they'd come before handing Ruby a note and vanishing into thin air like Jaune had.

Roman was silent for exactly two seconds before peering over the girl's shoulder at the note. "What's it say?"

"'She knows where you are.'"


	8. Chapter 8

"So… Was he pointing in the direction she's coming from or where we should go?" Roman wondered, looking down the hall where Ren had pointed.

A giant red scythe slamming into the wall above his head was his only answer.

"Does that answer your question?" Ruby asked as they dashed away, glancing back at Yang as she tried to pull the scythe free again. "Looks like he was showing where we needed to go. Run!"

They heard the familiar enraged scream echo down the halls after them, the grating noise starting up as Yang followed the fleeing duo. Ruby cringed at the sound, remembering again that it was her poor scythe making that sound from the abuse it was so strongly enduring. Her momentary lapse in concentration caused her to trip, and she braced herself as she started to fall to the floor, but she didn't expect Roman to grab her arm and pull her back to her feet before she could hit the ground.

"Watch where you're going, Red." _Did Torchwick seriously just help me?_

Making it back to the intersection where they'd originally started, they paused for a moment, even though they could still hear Yang quickly following. "Where now?" Ruby asked, though whether she was asking herself, Roman, or the walls, she didn't know. Luckily, Ren appeared again in the middle hallway, gesturing for them to follow him there before vanishing again.

"Why exactly are we trusting one of the monsters in here?" Her companion demanded as they ran after the ghostly image.

"He doesn't seem to be hostile. At the moment, he's the best chance we've got." She answered, sounding slightly breathless as all of the running away from monsters she'd been doing for the past several hours started to catch up to her. Normally, Ruby was fine with running for hours on end, the rest of her team could be out of breath and exhausted and she'd still be in the same shape as when they started, but this place seemed to suck the energy out of her.

Again, there were two different doors ahead. "Think we should split up again and hide in different spots?" Roman asked her, and she nodded. He immediately blew out his candle, plunging the hall into darkness, and the two ducked into opposite rooms. Once she had the door safely shut behind her, Ruby froze, barely daring to breathe as she heard Yang get closer and closer.

And then she passed right by the two doors and continued down the hall, now getting farther away with each passing second until finally, Ruby could hear her no longer. The girl leaned against the door with a relieved sigh, sliding down to the floor again in exhaustion. Looking up into the dark room after a moment, she figured she should at least look at what may be in here, and reached for her candle.

Once it was lit, though, she regretted that decision.

There was blood streaked across the floor and splattered onto one wall, apparently belonging to the limp body on the floor a few steps away. There was a small pool of blood on one side of it, which the ghostly Ren was now standing in, looking almost as if he was in pain from the amount of sadness he seemed to feel. At first, Ruby didn't recognize the pink outfit and pale orange hair, Ren staring at her for several minutes as she tried to figure out where she knew this person from. Finally, she gasped and her eyes widened in horror.

"Nora…" Ruby looked up at Ren, now understanding why he seemed to give off a contagious sad feeling everywhere he went. This was why Ren was in complete and utter anguish.

He motioned for her to come closer, and Ruby obeyed, standing up and walking over to Nora. They stared down at her unmoving, bloody body for a long minute before Ruby noticed the candlelight glinting off of a pink piece of metal hanging from the end of Nora's shirt, and she reached down to pick up the object.

Turning over Nora's hammer symbol in her hand, Ruby looked back at Ren. He gave her a small, sad smile, nodding slightly, and then he was gone again. She looked back at the symbol. _He led me here to get this. I guess he doesn't want me to end up like they did. Is he the only one this place didn't turn into a monster?_ Ruby shook her head, knowing she needed to go find Roman and keep trying to get out. She placed the pink hammer symbol beside the green sword, green gears, and red rose on her belt, and turned to leave.

She didn't notice the Weiss that had followed her into the room.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Been busy taking care of a kitten lately, so I haven't had a chance to update. To make up for it, I combined the next two chapters to make this one longer. Enjoy!**

**As always, reviews are highly appreciated.**

* * *

><p>As soon as she turned away from Nora and took a few steps to the door, the air turned cold. Ruby's hair stood on end and she froze, hand stilling midair from where she'd been reaching for the door handle. She wasn't alone, and this time, whatever was with her was <em>not<em> as friendly as Ren.

Before she could even think of what to do, something grabbed her, sharp nails digging into her sides. The girl gave a pained squeal and wrenched away, feeling the nails tear long and deep scratches as she did so, and darted out of the door before it could grab her again. She glanced back into the room before the door could swing closed, her eyes meeting the empty sockets of Weiss again.

"Red! What happened?" Roman came out of the other room, and stared at her for a moment. "You're bleeding."

"I am?" Ruby looked down, really seeing the scratches on her sides now. "That monster from earlier followed me in there."

"The blonde one?"

"No, the one I ran into the last time we split up." She reminded him, touching the scratches lightly. She hissed as it burned.

"Okay, from now on, no more splitting up." He nodded, agreeing with himself.

"I'm definitely not going to argue with that."

"You okay to keep going?"

"Yeah." Ruby turned, letting him see the hammer symbol now present on her belt alongside the others. "Look, we can move on now if we can find the ladder room."

"Let's go find it, then."

They started off back the direction they'd come again, since Yang had vanished down the opposite way, and there was another hall to explore back where they'd started anyway. Ruby blew out her own candle again, letting Roman carry the light source as they walked. It wasn't long before they came back to the intersection, and turned down the last hallway.

"Hey, Red?" He spoke up again a few minutes later.

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me, or does this place…" He paused, seemingly looking for the right words. "Does it feel like it's eating away at you?"

"It does, actually." She agreed, thinking of how it seemed to be messing with her memory and the overall feel of it was making her lose her edge. "It feels like it's trying to make me go insane."

He didn't answer, and they fell into silence again. They did come upon another door, though, and when Ruby peeked behind it, the amount of light inside made her eyes protest at the contrast between it and the darkness of the hall.

"Found the ladder room." She grumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"… I've got a bad feeling." Roman mentioned as they walked into the room and toward the ladder.

"Eh?" Ruby made a questioning noise, looking over at her companion.

"I don't know." He admitted. "I just feel like something really bad is going to happen on this next floor."

Ruby looked back at the ladder. _I can feel it too. There's something else up there, something we haven't seen yet, and I really don't want to go find it._ "We'll just have to be cautious."

He nodded, and climbed up. Ruby followed, the foreboding feeling she had getting stronger with each step. When the opening closed behind them, she felt as if they'd just signed a contract for their doom.

This room didn't actually have a door, instead opening up directly to another hall, which they quietly crept into, listening closely for any sign of Yang. But Ruby could hear nothing; instead there was an eerie silence the other floors didn't seem to have. It wasn't just a lack of noise, it was the kind of silence that pressed on your head and made your ears hurt. Ruby pressed a hand to the side of her head and cringed, already feeling a bad headache coming along.

Roman started off down the hall, and she followed, content with letting him lead while her head hurt. Time started to blur slightly, so she wasn't sure if they had walked for thirty seconds or an hour, but after awhile he stopped and she ran into his back. "… Torchwick?"

"Look. What's that up ahead?" Leaning to the side to look around his shoulder, Ruby peered into the darkness in front of them. She was just able to make out a dark figure, stumbling toward them as if injured. She didn't have to wait for it to come within range of the light this time to know what it was.

"No. No, no, I don't want to see that one again." Ruby hid behind her companion, shivering as she remembered the injured Jaune as it had stumbled toward her before. If felt like she had watched a recording of him dying, and something about it got under her skin more than the other monsters did.

"Is it dangerous?"

"I don't think so. I just… I don't want to see it."

There wasn't total silence now. Ruby realized with a horrified jolt that this time, Jaune made noise. She could hear the shuffling of his weak and uneven footsteps, and faint gurgling sounds, making her picture the blood coming from his mouth. Covering her ears didn't block out the sound at all, as much as she wanted it to, until finally the footsteps ending in a tripping sound and then there was silence again. "… He's gone."

"Okay." She looked up, noticing Roman was staring at her. "What?"

"That thing was one of your friends, right?" She nodded. "Damn. I can understand your reaction, I wouldn't want to see them like that either."

Ruby blinked. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be a jerk?"

He laughed slightly. "I can't really remember."

And then Ruby realized something. "Torchwick, this place is making us forget who we are."

Her words hung heavily in the silence as the two contemplated what that statement could mean, and the consequences it held.

* * *

><p>Eventually, the two remembered that they couldn't stay in one place for too long, or else Yang or one of the other monsters would find them. With that in mind, they continued on their way, walking in silence down the hall. The complete lack of sound was getting under Ruby's skin, making her fidget and want to come up with some sort of conversation just so the silence wouldn't feel so pressing, but she also had a feeling any noise they made would lead all of the monsters they didn't want to see straight to them.<p>

"How long have we been down here?" Roman breathed, making as little sound as he could. _I guess he feels it too. Making noise is probably a bad idea in here if we both have that vibe._

"I'm not sure. It feels like it's been days." She admitted, noticing again how much her feet hurt.

"It probably has been."

Ruby was about to answer when she thought she saw a faint flicker of light far ahead. She paused, and reached out to grab Roman's sleeve to stop him as well. He turned to give her a questioning look, but she just shook her head and kept watching the darkness. "Hey, can you blow out that candle?"

He just looked downright confused now, but did as she asked. Once they were in the dark again, he spotted the light ahead too. "What's that?"

They watched it for a few moments until Ruby realized it was coming closer to them, and stepped to the side to watch as it passed by. Once it had gotten close enough, she realized it was the two Beacon students she'd seen before, except this time they were running from something. That something was apparently the same monster as Yang, since the same grating sound was following the students as they ran. This monster seemed to be faster than Yang, though, since the two were just barely getting away from it. The grating stopped, then a second later the dark shape of a scythe slashed into the range of the candle and the blonde student fell with a pained cry.

The hall was silent and empty again as they vanished.

"Do… do you think she died?" Ruby's voice shook slightly.

"No." Roman answered, sounding certain. "I think she escaped. I think they both got out of here."

"I hope so." She still felt as if she should recognize them, but no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't quite figure out who they were. "Come on, we should keep going."

Soon they had a candle lit again and were back on their way, trudging down the hall on sore feet and waning spirits. Ruby's head was hurting more and more the longer they wandered the silent stone floors, and she vaguely noticed she couldn't even hear their own footsteps, despite the fact she and Roman were both wearing heavy boots. This floor wasn't just quiet, it was unnaturally silent.

Again, Ruby couldn't quite tell how long they'd walked before her companion stopped, making her nearly bump into him again. "What are you–"

"Shh. Listen."

Ruby did as told, going quiet and listening closely to the still air. She was about to ask what it was he could hear when she finally picked up the faint sound of someone crying in the distance. The sound made chills go down her spine.

"I guess we should go find the source of that." She nodded in agreement, finding herself unable to come up with a verbal answer. As soon as they started walking again, the sound started getting louder with each step, even though it had sounded a mile away just a few feet before. "What is wrong with the sound here?"

Almost immediately, they came to another door. The crying seemed to be coming from inside, but just as Ruby was reaching for the handle Ren appeared between her and the door, making her almost reach right through him.

She and Roman both froze as they stared at the magenta-eyed ghost. He was giving them a slightly panicked warning look, similarly to when he had tried to help them get away from Yang, and was shaking his head slowly.

"Ren? Do you not want us to go in there?" Ruby was answered with a quick nod from the ghost. "Is Yang in there?"

He shook his head this time. Ruby was about to ask what was in the room, but Ren suddenly seemed to get grabbed by something she couldn't see. He struggled against the invisible bonds before being forcefully pulled through the door and into the room. Exchanging a quick, uneasy glance with Roman, they opened the door and went in after the ghost.

Roman's candle lit very little around them, but Ruby could make out old bloodstains on the floor. They cautiously walked further into the room, hearing the crying get louder as they did so. Soon the light hit the wall opposite the door they'd entered from, illuminating a strange painting and the still-struggling Ren beside it. As Ruby peered closer, she noticed the painting was a very pretty image of Pyrrha with her eyes closed. The crying seemed to be coming from it.

She could see Ren struggle harder in the corner of her eye, apparently trying to break free and get to them, but for some reason she couldn't look away from the painting. Judging by the fact Roman hadn't moved or spoken, he couldn't look away either. The crying got louder and louder in their ears, until it reached a deafening level, and suddenly the pretty image changed drastically. The painting was now Pyrrha with her eyes open, and an unnaturally large grin split her face. Her expression made her look murderous, but happy about it.

A sharp pain pulsed through her skull like fire, similar to her headache, but much worse. It happened again and again, making her vision turn red at the edges before everything went black and she felt herself fall to the ground, faintly hearing a similar thud beside her as Roman fell too.


	10. Chapter 10

A steady beeping filled the air.

The three girls had long since grown accustomed to the noise, and barely noticed it anymore. It no longer distracted Blake from her reading, Weiss from her studies, or Yang from whatever it was Yang did.

Blake was seated on the left hand side of the infirmary bed, some unknown fiction book in her hand. Weiss was on the opposite side, a textbook in her own hand, and Yang was on the floor beside Blake with her face pressed into the mattress.

The blonde made a muffled string of noises, and Weiss glanced at her. "What was that?"

Yang turned her head. "I said, why the hell hasn't she woken up yet?"

"They said there's nothing to prevent her from waking up physically, she just won't. Maybe she isn't ready yet." Blake reminded her partner, golden eyes trained on the younger girl on the bed.

"What if she never wakes up?"

Weiss threw her textbook at the blonde. "Don't doubt her like that. Ruby is strong; she can make it through this."

Yang blinked, surprised by Weiss's faith in the girl.

"Uh, guys?" Blake's voice cut in suddenly, her anxious tone making them both turn to her. "Ruby's bleeding."

They followed the Faunus' gaze to the girl in the white sheets, noticing the growing pool of blood spreading from her midsection. Yang stood immediately and pulled the covers down to search for where the blood was coming from, while Weiss dashed out the door. "I'll get the doctor!" she called as she went.

Blake stood beside Yang now, book forgotten on the floor beside the thrown textbook. "Can you see what it is yet?"

"Her sides are scratched. Badly." Yang told her, expression morphing into a mix of worried and completely confused. "How did that happen with her just laying here?"

"Ouch. Those are deep." Blake commented. "But it isn't possible to just suddenly sprout wounds like this…"

Weiss returned, followed by one of the nurses and Glynda.

"Professor Goodwitch?" Blake gave her a confused look.

"I heard Weiss tell the staff what was going on, and decided to come look." The strict professor explained, earning a nod from the Faunus.

She looked at the scratches for a moment before the nurse set to work cleaning and bandaging them, an odd look of recognition and worry crossing her face. There was silence in the small, white room for several minutes, until finally Ruby's scratches were dressed to the nurse's approval and she left.

Glynda turned to the Faunus and the heiress. "Can you two step outside for a moment? I need to speak to Miss Xiao Long."

Blake and Weiss exchanged a look, but nodded and left the room anyway, leaving Yang alone with the professor and the comatose Ruby.

"Yang, there's something important I need to tell you about." Glynda's tone was gravely serious.

Hearing the strict professor use her first name made the blonde uneasy. "Yes?"

"There's an uncommonly known fact that Death Stalker venom… _Does things_ to people." She started. "The victims of injuries from that creature always fall into a coma-like state for an undeterminable amount of time, but they're not asleep, oh no. They're very much awake."

"So she's dreaming?"

"Sort of, but it's _not_ within her own head. Right now, Ruby is in a very dangerous place and if she isn't careful, it will kill her."

Yang was silent for a long moment. "Professor, where is my sister?"

Glynda took a deep breath, and leaned back in her chair.

"Many years ago, when Ozpin and I were just students here at Beacon, we were sent on a mission. Ozpin was injured by a Death Stalker, and I carried him back here for treatment despite being injured as well. However, as soon as we made it back, I collapsed as well.

"I woke up in a strange place. I expected to see a room like this, but instead, I was in some sort of underground dungeon. There was no light and I could barely see, and even when I did find candles there, there was a thick dust in the air that the light just bounced off of. It was hard to see anything in there, and that made the creatures there that much worse.

"We had our own team back then, the two of us and two others. Then, much like your team is with team JNPR, the four of us were friends with your uncle Qrow's team. And all of these people showed up in that dungeon with me, except they'd been twisted into monsters.

"It wasn't long before I ran into Ozpin there. He asked me if I was really there, and if I was going to try to kill him too. Of course we figured out that we could indeed trust each other, and started trying to find the way out together. For each of our friends and us, there were little metal copies of each of our personal symbols. We found out along the way that finding these symbols was the key to escaping, but it wasn't going to be easy to find them all.

"The monster versions of our friends were trying to kill us the entire time. Qrow was the most dangerous one, sometimes. He wandered the halls with his scythe and if he saw us, we'd have to run for our lives, and he was fast. At one point he actually managed to catch us, and slashed me across the back. There were others too, like ones that only moved when we didn't look at them, and crying paintings.

"There were two symbols we didn't find. They both belonged to members of Qrow's team, and one of those members was Summer, Ruby's mother. We found all of the others except those two, and once we found all of the symbols for our own team, we woke up.

"When I woke up, I was in agony. Despite having sustained my injury in the dream, the slash on my back had appeared in the real world. But we were alive, and that was all I cared about at the time. That was, until half of Qrow's team died. The same two members whose symbols we couldn't find ended up dying after Ozpin and I woke up."

Yang was staring at the older blonde in horror.

"Right now, Ruby is in that same place. She's probably looking for yours and JNPR's symbols right now, and those scratches are the result of one of the monsters hurting her. Since injuries in that world transfer over to this world as well, if she dies there, she will die in the real world as well. Furthermore, if she doesn't collect all of the symbols outside of team RWBY, the owners of the unfound symbols will also die."

"Okay, okay… First, how do you know Summer's death was related to all this? She died years after graduation." Yang asked.

"The first member whose symbol we didn't find died a few years after we woke up. She died the exact same way she had in that place, which was why we thought it was related. When Summer didn't die, we figured we were just being paranoid, but when she did eventually, she died the same way as in the dream too.

"Ozpin and I, and Ruby too, aren't the only ones to end up there. For years there have been cases of Hunters and Huntresses ending up in this state from Death Stalker stings, and the survivors always tell the same story. Anyone whose symbol they didn't find, died sometime after the victims woke up, in the same way they did in the dream."

Yang seemed to be ready to ask another question, but they both turned to the girl on the bed when the heart monitor sped up drastically. Ruby's face twisted in pain, and a shudder passed through her body, making her jolt harshly. Then she fell still for a moment, and the two blondes started to relax until the beeps fell into one long, relentless tone.

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><p><strong>AN: DONT PANIC THIS FIC ISN'T OVER YET**


	11. Chapter 11

Yang and Glynda froze.

Neither found themselves able to move, watching with horror as the young team leader seemed to die right before their eyes. The high pitched, drawn out beep rang in their ears, chilling them both with dread.

Weiss and Blake dashed back into the room with a doctor and multiple nurses on their heels, but before anyone could so much as move, Ruby took a ragged breath and the regular beeping came back again.

There was silence for a few minutes until Glynda spoke up in a quiet voice. "She should have died there, but she refused to give up. Her subconscious refuses to lose."

Several minutes later, after checking up on Ruby's condition and deciding she was stable enough to leave, the staff vanished from the room. After Glynda kicked the monochrome pair out again, the two blondes returned to their chairs on either side of Ruby, and the older woman spoke again.

"Ruby died in the dream." She said, giving Yang a hard stare. "She must've gotten caught by one of the violent monsters, or maybe done something that resulted in an instant 'game over', so to speak."

"But she's alright now, isn't she?" Yang asked, worry creeping back into her voice.

"She must be so determined to come back that even though she died, she refused to let that world win and somehow forced it to give her a second chance." After a moment, she added, "Yang, it is indeed because of you that she's here. However, that doesn't mean she or anyone else blames you. If she felt like you betrayed her, would she really be trying this hard to come back? She's fighting to come back to you."

"… Thank you, professor."

"I have no doubt in my mind Ruby can overcome this and wake up. We just have to give her time to accomplish that."

* * *

><p>Ruby jolted awake, looking around in a wild panic. The same eerie, stone walls that she'd been forced to stare at for the past several hours greeted her again.<p>

_Did I… die?_

The thought made her shiver. _Am I stuck here forever? Am I dead in the real world right now?_ Standing up, she looked over at the shelves to her right, hoping to find something that could tell her for sure one way or another. In the darkness she could faintly see a white candle, and stepped over to pick it up and light it. Once it flickered to life and filled the small room with a warm light, she noticed the familiar glinting coming from something on the shelf, and picked up Blake's black Belladonna flower symbol.

As Ruby reached to put it on her belt, she gasped and stared down at it with a panicked look. All of the symbols that had previously been held on her belt were gone, including her own._ Did I lose them when I…?_

Something was nagging at the back of her mind, as if she'd forgotten something important. Ruby couldn't quite place what it was, though it did feel like it had something to do with a living person. Who was she forgetting? _Wasn't there someone here with me?_ Her memories felt fuzzier now than they ever had before, and it annoyed her slightly. She had the feeling she was forgetting a lot of really important things, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember anything.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Ruby made her way out of the room cautiously. She was met with the same dark halls yet again, and sighed, resigning herself to her fate of searching this place all over again.

Down the hall, Ruby opened the first door she saw and peered inside. Her candle illuminated a couple of shelves and a Weiss standing in the center of the room. She knew it could see her, and she stared right back at the eyeless thing for a split second.

"Nope." The girl closed the door and continued down the hall.

The next door she came to was only a few feet away, and when Ruby pulled it open, light bled into the hall. She gave the ladder room a confused stare, thinking about how everything on this floor had been in the same area. That thought was pushed away as soon as she noticed there was no opening in the ceiling, however, despite the fact she did indeed have Blake's symbol. _So what do I need to do before I can move on to the next floor?_

She turned back into the hall, and was about to head down the direction she still hadn't explored when she noticed a figure standing with its back to her, just outside of her candle's light. She stepped closer to illuminate it, and realized it was the ghostly Ren again.

"Ren?" Ruby asked, but he didn't turn. Confused, the girl walked up to stand beside him, and that was when she noticed Weiss standing a few steps in front of Ren. The creepy version of her partner was rooted in place by the unblinking stare Ren had trained on her, and Ruby realized she would have been attacked and cornered if he hadn't shown up and stopped it.

Then she remembered the last time she'd seen him, and turned back to him, suddenly feeling the need to make sure he was alright. "Are you okay? Something had hold of you the last time we met." His eyes didn't move from Weiss, but he gave a slight nod and waved her off. Then, when Ruby was just about to ask something else, his arm shot out to hold an item in front of her and she fell silent to inspect the object. Her eyes widened when she recognized the magenta lotus as Ren's own symbol.

She reached out and grabbed hold of the metal symbol, but Ren did not let go of it. He kept a firm grip on the symbol and continued staring at Weiss, but before Ruby could question him further, she heard his voice.

_"Ruby, these symbols banish their corresponding monsters from here when you have them. As soon as I let go of this, I will vanish. Before that happens I needed to warn you. Everything will be harder now; since you cheated the rules of this place the monsters have redoubled their efforts to kill you. Even Nora is dangerous now, be wary of her. I had hoped to keep my symbol until the end so I could continue helping you where I was able, but you now need two symbols in order to open the next floor, and Blake's was the only one on this floor. Now, when I let go, that symbol is going to force me away so I won't be able to help you anymore, and Weiss will be set free. As soon as that happens you need to run to the ladder as quickly as you can, Weiss is extremely aggressive now and much faster than before and she WILL immediately come after you."_ Ren didn't speak verbally, but his words echoed around inside Ruby's head. _"Are you ready?"_

She nodded, and Ren's grip on the symbol started to loosen.

_"Oh, and Ruby? Don't trust anyone."_

And with that, her magenta eyed friend let go and vanished, and she bolted for the ladder room. She could _feel_ Weiss's cold presence chasing after her, right on her heels, and wished she was able to move faster. Luckily the room was only a few steps away, and she darted up the ladder and onto the next floor as quickly as she could. Before the opening could seal itself behind her, however, she turned back to see Weiss had climbed after her and was reaching up toward her, her eyeless face morphed into an angry stare. Then the opening sealed up and all that was left was a pale hand sticking up through the floor, where it had sealed around Weiss's wrist.

Ruby gave a frightened squeak and backed away into the corner, sliding to the floor and curling in on herself, fully unnerved by the sight of the hand. Something about seeing Weiss's hand sticking up through the floor like that made her want to hide under her unfortunately absent cloak forever and never come out.

She must have fallen asleep there on the floor, because the next thing she knew, it was dark and she was shivering. Her candle had gone out long ago, and without it the dungeon felt colder than ever. _Since when is it even possible to sleep inside of a dream, anyway?_

At first she thought it was the cold that had awoken her, but a sound echoing in from the hall told her otherwise. Eerie giggles bounced off the cold stone walls, some sounding louder than others and all varying in pitch. It sent chills down her spine, but even more so when she realized it sounded a lot like her own voice.

Ruby wanted to stay right where she was, curled up in the corner. But her feet seemed to move of their own accord, forcing her to stand and walk out into the dark hallway. The giggles and slightly insane sounding laughter continued to echo down from the room at the very end of the hall, and Ruby found herself walking closer and closer until she was standing in the very room it was coming from.

Now the laughter was accompanied by something Ruby could only describe as a faint squelching sound, and a little ways into the room she could just slightly make out the dark figure of someone who seemed to be swinging something toward the ground repeatedly. She glanced to the side and noticed a candle on the floor by the entrance, and again her body moved without her telling it to, picking up the candle and lighting it.

Light from the flame filled a large area of the room, just enough for her to see there were actually two figures in the room. A dark haired male was on the floor, completely limp and his green coat was barely recognizable as that color through all of the red staining it. Above him was someone in a long red cloak, which was torn beyond repair at the end, the fabric fraying into long strips of useless fleece. The cloaked figure was holding two bladed green guns, however those were also barely green anymore, covered in more and more blood with each time the cloaked figure stabbed their blades into the person on the floor. The figure continued laughing maniacally, not caring that their victim was long dead or that blood was splattering onto everything with each hit.

Ruby gasped at the horrific scene, unable to stop herself, and the figure went silent as it turned to investigate the noise. It spotted her at the same time Ruby recognized it, and she made a loud sound of terror as she found herself staring into her own eyes. The cloaked figure looked exactly like Ruby herself; except for the fact its skin was a dead grey and its hair was flat black, only colored red by the blood splattered in it. But what really bothered Ruby was the completely insane look in its eyes, and the wide grin similar to the one Pyrrha's painting had held.

The guns in its hands were also no longer green. They changed to a poisonous looking black, the edges of their forms twisting and swirling like an evil mist around the Dark Ruby's hands. The blood on them also seemed to evaporate, or maybe it was consumed by the dark weapons.

"Why hello _Ruby._ Wanna be _frieeends?_" The other Ruby started laughing again, and lurched toward her. As the dark version of herself grew closer, Ruby noticed the familiar glinting as her candlelight caught on the reflective surface of the red rose on Dark Ruby's belt.

She gasped. "You have my symbol!"

"What, this?" Dark Ruby teasingly passed a hand over the metal. "Nope, 'fraid it's mine now. That's what you get for not staying dead."

Ruby just blinked in confusion. Dark Ruby sighed overdramatically, waving the dark weapons in her hands about wildly while she explained.

"You _died,_ remember? When you came here, I got your cloak. When you died, I got your symbol. Now all I have to do is kill your sister and I'll have your weapon, too. But you cheated, and came back. You've messed up the rules of this world, so I guess that means I need to kill you again and make sure you _stay dead._" Dark Ruby's laughs got louder and she ran forward, black rose petals spilling from her cloak as she used Ruby's own Semblance to speed toward her. Ruby found herself backed up against a wall, and clenched her eyes shut as she braced herself for the hit from the dark weapons the other version of her held. But it never came, and she slowly opened her eyes to see Dark Ruby had just vanished.

After a few minutes of standing there with a dumbstruck look on her face, Ruby shook her head and looked over at the body on the floor. It was a gruesome sight, their flesh was torn to the point they didn't even look human anymore, some of the bones even being visible through the mess of red, and the blood splattered multiple feet away in every direction. Ruby didn't want to look at it anymore, but something told her she needed to see this person's face.

Walking closer, she ignored the blood that was splashing up onto her boots with each step. Once she stood beside the body she crouched down, and gently turned them over so she could see the face. The pink streak in their hair and the glassy magenta eyes left her with no doubt of who it was, and she gave a choked sound of distress.

It was Ren.

As she fell to her knees in the pool of blood beside her friend, all she could really do was hope was he died long before he had to suffer too much pain. Dream or not, the people and monsters in this place were real beings and conscious to a point. Maybe the monsters here weren't Ruby's friends in her own world, but maybe they were, somewhere else, in some crazy complicated alternate dimension thing. _I must be losing it. I'm trying to find an explanation for everything here, and where it all came from. Regardless of where they came from or if they're real or not, though… Ren didn't deserve this._ Ren wasn't on her team, and they didn't talk much, but she still considered him a friend. And she hated seeing what this world had done to her friends. She couldn't get the image of _herself_ murdering her _friend_ out of her head.

And for the first time since she had woken up in this nightmarish world, Ruby cried. She cried for her friends and all of the pain this place had brought, to her and to others before her. Sitting there alone in a pool of her murdered friend's blood, she cried until she could cry no more.

Eventually, the girl pulled herself together, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and standing up. She stood slightly taller than she had previously, a renewed determination sparkling in her angry eyes as she snatched her dying candle from where it had been forgotten on the floor, and stormed out of the room. _I'm going to get out of here, and not a damn thing can stop me._


	12. Chapter 12

Ruby explored a couple more rooms after leaving the one Ren was in, and though she had found plenty of spare candles for awhile, she hadn't found any more symbols yet. She was starting to wonder if this floor was like the previous, where she'd needed two but only one existed on that floor. The girl was starting to run out of ideas when she heard a familiar crying, realizing Pyrrha's painting was nearby. With a little internal debate over whether or not she could handle the painting without dying this time, she took off in the direction it was coming from.

This time when she found the right room, there was no Ren to stop her from going inside. She pushed open the door slowly, and kept her eyes glued to the floor as she walked inside. This room seemed similar to the last one the painting had been in, the painting was even directly opposite the door. Ruby didn't let her gaze wander to study the room, instead she kept walking to the painting until she stood directly in front of it, still refusing to look at it.

Now that she was here she wondered for a moment what to do, but the idea to look behind the painting crossed her mind and she glanced at the edge of the frame, wondering just how to do that. She also briefly wondered if the painting could bite.

Finally, she decided to just close her eyes to make sure she didn't look at it, and reached out to pull it off of the wall. It came down into her hands without protest like any normal painting would, and she heard something fall from behind it and clatter on the floor. Noting that it sounded like a thin disk of metal, Ruby smirked to herself and carefully set the painting aside, making sure it was facing the wall before opening her eyes. She looked down at the floor, and saw the golden arcs of Jaune's symbol glinting in the light.

She picked up the symbol and looked at it for a moment. _Pretty creative for it to be hidden behind the painting you can't look at._ Then, she placed it on her belt alongside Blake's black Belladonna flower and Ren's magenta lotus.

Having found what she needed in that room, Ruby continued on her way. Her steady footsteps echoed around the hall faintly as she walked, and she wondered for a moment if Yang was anywhere nearby. The blonde didn't seem to be within earshot at the moment, though, so for now Ruby decided not to worry about her. She _did,_ however, decide to worry about the ghostly figure that just appeared at the end of the hall.

It was out of the range of her candle, but Ruby could just make out the shape of someone there, wobbling slightly as if they were having troubling holding their balance properly. Ruby squinted, trying to get a better look at who it might be, but before she could really tell, a loud scream ripped through the air from them and they dashed down the hall toward her.

She recognized it as a ghostly image of Nora, but either she was moving too fast for her to see it or Nora just didn't have a face. Before she could really react or move out of the way, Nora ran past her and brushed against her side before vanishing into the darkness again, and Ruby suddenly collapsed as her leg buckled beneath her. Looking down, she noticed a large gash left in her thigh, and it was bleeding heavily. _Ouch, did Nora do this? Ren was right, she is dangerous. I didn't even feel it happen._ Ruby pulled herself over to the wall so she could lean against it, hoping a few minutes of rest would allow her to stand again. If she wasn't able to walk, she was definitely in trouble.

She noticed she'd accidentally dropped her candle, since now it sat a few feet away on the opposite side of the hall, leaving her just outside of its light. She was about to move to retrieve it when she heard the grating noise.

The girl froze, listening carefully as Yang grew closer, until finally reaching this hall and turning to walk down it toward Ruby. _Nora must have attracted her with that scream. Maybe that's partially why she's as dangerous as Ren said._ She watched Yang slowly step into the light of the candle, and somehow managed to not gasp at the sight of the blonde.

This time, Yang wasn't just wearing her normal outfit covered in blood. This time, she had multiple dirty, blood-covered bandages covering many different parts of her body. Her entire chest and stomach were wrapped entirely, as was her left arm, which was hanging limply as if she couldn't move it anymore. Her right leg was also bandaged, but those had come loose and were trailing on the floor behind her, and her head was wrapped up as well, covering her left eye. A thin line of blood dripped from her mouth, and Ruby noticed her hair was slightly shorter, looking rather torn and choppy at the ends.

How Ruby managed to not gasp or squeak, she herself didn't know. Somehow she was able to stay silent as the battered blonde passed by her, vanishing down the hall in the direction Nora had gone. As eerie as the sight of Yang covered in those bandages was, Ruby was positive she'd rather not see her without them. But for now, she was just glad she hadn't been spotted.

Ruby attempted to stand, and found her leg could support most of her weight now. Moving into the range of the candlelight, she noticed it had been carefully bandaged, and stared down in blank confusion. _Wat._ She blinked. _When did… Who… How did it get bandaged?! Okay that's it I'm officially going nuts._ Remembering her previous injury from Weiss, she checked her sides and those, too, had been mysteriously taken care of. She hadn't even noticed before that they'd stopped hurting.

Regardless of _how_ her injuries ended up being treated, she decided to stop questioning it and just be glad it enabled her to keep going. With that in mind, she picked up her candle and continued down the hall, away from Yang and Nora.

By the time she reached the end of the hall, her leg was starting to hurt again from being used, but she chose to ignore it. She couldn't hang around in one place forever, she needed to keep moving. Seeing a door down the hall to her right, Ruby limped over and pushed it open, peeking into the relatively bare room. There weren't any monsters in here, but the glinting on the table in the middle of the room immediately caught her eye, and she moved to look at it.

Pyrrha's red spear and shield symbol sat peacefully in its spot on the table, and Ruby picked it up. _Well, at least now I won't have to deal with the painting anymore._ Placing it on her belt beside Jaune's, she noted that she now had four in total again. Hopefully this time she wouldn't die before she got the fifth one.

She turned and left the room, going back into the hall yet again. Continuing on her way, boot dragging slightly against the stone floor due to her limp, Ruby kept a close eye ahead of her for any monsters. It seemed empty, though, giving her an eerie feeling of being completely and utterly alone. She walked on in silence for a few more minutes, or maybe an hour, she couldn't tell. But eventually, when a familiar laughter started echoing toward her down the hall, Ruby _wished_ she was alone.

Again, Ruby couldn't control her own actions as she began to follow the sound to another door, and pushed it open. The first thing she noticed was that light bled into the hall, making her realize Dark Ruby was in the ladder room. Then she noticed the dark version of herself was stabbing someone again, over and over with Ren's corrupted guns.

This time it was Jaune.

Dark Ruby seemed to grow bored of her little game of seeing how much red she could splatter all over the room, and reached down to pick up Jaune's sword. Ruby watched as the sword became enveloped in that same twisting blackness when her dark counterpart touched it, and cringed slightly at the poor weapon's fate.

"Oh hellooooo Ruby, nice to see you again." Ruby's eyes snapped back up to Dark Ruby's face, seeing that she was now watching her. "I didn't get to kill you before, your damn friend Ren dragged me off. When I made him let go I did find _Yang_, though. She put up a good fight, but I know she's in worse shape than meeeee right now. Won't be long before I have your _beloved scythe_, Ruby."

"So you're the reason Yang was bandaged up." Ruby narrowed her eyes at the blood covered girl.

"Yep! That was aaaaaaaaaaaall meeeeeeeee!" She spun around the room as she sang those two words. "Maybe I can actually kill her next time with this sword. But regardless of that, _right noooow…_ Ruuuuuby's neeeeeext!"

And then Dark Ruby lunged toward her, black rose petals flying into the air again as she aimed the corrupted sword right toward Ruby's chest. She didn't have time to try and dodge, since Dark Ruby had her Semblance, but a fuzzy and distorted image of Jaune appeared between them. He caught the dark blade in his hand, effectively stopping her.

"Awwww, not again!" Dark Ruby whined, while Jaune glanced back to give Ruby a reassuring look.

_"It's okay Ruby, we've got your back."_ Then he grabbed Dark Ruby and the two appeared to be violently expelled from the room, the golden arcs symbol on Ruby's belt glowing angrily as it happened.

Ruby blinked. _The symbols ward off the monsters, banning them from coming near me. He just broke that rule and forced his way here anyway to save me. I guess since he was holding onto Dark Ruby, it forced her away too once he stopped fighting to be near._ Judging from what the other girl had said, that's what happened last time, too, except Ren had been the one to break the rule and come save her.

_So first I broke a rule by coming back after death. Now, this place is trying even harder to get me killed, and the monsters have started breaking the rules too… What's going to happen when no one listens to this world's rules anymore?!_


End file.
